Other

I’m not sure how long I was there, drifting among the ice tumbling through space. Their gentle orbits belying their dangerous mass. Watching the miners ply their violet beams to harvest diamonds and water had a certain peace to it.

Sensors lit when twin targets dropped in-belt. The python I could imagine was here for the chunks of ice gently orbitng [redacted]. The FDL on the other hand, I had this gut-feeling about.

Not now. But a few weeks ago. A friend joined and I’m excited to see him in it. So I’ve been questing, catching up to the events. Generally having a good ol’ time. But I’m not burning hard to finish story or levels or anything of that nature like I did last year. That was an intense two weeks and by the end I was just burned out and needed a break. Like.. a 10 month break.

I’ve made some new friends and had some great adventures. Perhaps you’ll hear about them.

Most recently me and some friends were hot on the trail of some kind of magical pony. We saw several, as while they’re rare, they’re not particularly unique. We had to battle through numerous manifestations of Ifrit, some harder than others.

Some time ago I was member to a party where I found it’s sister, the pony of Air. Xanthos, I think they call it.

There are numerous ponies to find and I’m on something of a quest to catch them all.

So, in and out of a couple games. Some oldies and favorites. Some I’ve talked about here, some I haven’t. But new on my list is Farm Together. Loosely described as Farmville but on Steam and multiplayer. Regardless, it’s cute and easy to play. No massively ulterior goal other than farming and building up your options for plants.

Right now, i’m just barely into it but I’ve got Lemon and Apple trees and a smattering of field crops.

I’m something of a fan of Istaria. It’s dated, sure. It’s not modern-day graphics dialed up to 9. The community is small but dedicated and the world is interesting to explore.

Between Dragon and Biped you can be anything you want. And there’s no commitment to class when you’re not a dragon, you can level all the classes and add their powers to your repertoire.

Dragon is kind of a one and done approach but you can learn to fly. And it’s a rare game where you can a) play a dragon and b) Fly.

My personal tastes are kinda there with fantasy games. I want interesting depth, optional design choices and a world you can explore. I once joined some friends for a big fiery boss-monster fight. This fight required my way-underleveled elf to hike across creation for what feels like forever. Past monsters great and small, through townships and villages.

I would do it again. My second character aside from Zurom is going to be a lizard man of some nature.

I’ve played a prodigious amount of Minecraft in the last month or so. Coupled with a heat wave that made my computer unbearable I have little to talk about.

I considered delving into rocketry again. Something a coworker said reminded me of Estes Rockets and now that I have money and time I thought I could get back into the hobby. Sadly, I don’t have space to do the kind of construction it requires nor the venue to launch and recover from. It’s on my to-do list, but something that will take more than 5 minutes Amazon research to work out.

A friend of mine is playing FFXIV and it’s new expansion as well as Witcher 3. Such that I haven’t seen him in a few weeks so I’m assuming they’re quite good. I watched him stream Witcher one night, it’s very pretty and appears very well done.

I picked up a new phone and Puzzles and Dragons again for some mobile entertainment. Taking a break from reading my book in the morning meant finding something else to fill the time. I like the mix of Pokemon and Bejeweled, certainly gives me something to enjoy on the commute.

Hawken comes along nicely. An arena shooter featuring you as a large-ish robot. More action than strategy, a mild amount of real money investment to customize. I enjoy the idea for 10/15 minutes a day or weekend. I’m not dedicated for more than that.

I talked a friend into spinning up EVE Online a bit. So far he likes it and committed to a 3 month run. EVE provides a sandbox experience that’s immediately deeper than most other games on the market. There’s so much information to be absorbed you spend your first couple of sessions wrapping your head around some of the concepts.

Meanwhile I got back into Guild Wars 2 right as the recent festival was ending. I reached out via Reddit to find a guild with active players. My previous guild, managed by my roommate is sorta dead. But that happens when you run an exclusive friends/family guild. I still retain leadership power, as GW2 doesn’t lock you out of guild memberships, but I don’t expect any of the six members to come flocking back anytime soon.

RIFT went Free to Play, my few hours with it have shown me that it’s a solid game with a reliable mechanic. I don’t find it compelling as it’s more of the same Fantasy MMO I’ve gotten used to, but you might find it more interesting.

Last of Us finally came out and so far it sounds amazing. I watched the first ten minutes via YouTube on a favored channel of mine. I got that same anxiety I get when I watch other suspense zombie movies. Fantastic, if you’re looking for that kind of thing. I’ll be playing but I’ll surely wait for a bright, sunny weekend.

Meanwhile, Shadowrun Returns, a strategy/rpg of the Shadowrun Genre releases on July 25th. I’m excited as I’ve been waiting for this since the Kickstarter convinced me to give my token support. It’s coming with full tools to build your own missions and so I look forward to forum threads on construction and playthrough of various homemade stories.

As always, you can submit personal requests via malformedfork (at) gmail. I’ll do what I can.

Ladies and Gentlemen. Yes, i’m speaking to all six of you, my amused fanbase. I close out my tabletop gaming in late November, ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday and free myself and my players from the frustration of trying to schedule their weekly gaming excursion. I don’t pick it back up until January giving myself some time to plot and consider.

I’m closing out one game this season, Shadowrun comes to a close tonight or next monday. Either they die, or they escape. Next year is already shaping up to be a busy run. I’ve got calls for Werewolf, Shadowrun should pick up in January on schedule and I’ve got some piqued interest for Pathfinder. All games I’d run. The tricky part is I can’t usually run more than two games without canning one of them. Something in me feels like I can do this.

I don’t subscribe to many of the AAA titles that come out of the video-gaming cycles. I’m not playing Assassin’s Creed though I’ve heard it’s good. If you like the sneaking and stabbing style then I can’t imagine you’ll be left wanting with another bout of the ‘Creed. Unconsciously my brain keeps trying to call it Asheron’s Call. I played Asheron’s Call 2 back in that brief window they kept the servers up. I liked it alot and would have played it a lot longer save that unfortunate cutoff. I’d tell you about it’s wonders but it’s been so long I barely remember any of the details. I remember you could /play an instrument you’d pull out of thin air and if others joined you it would form an orchestra of sorts.

I bought into a new Gameboy DS XL. Hell, this thing is huge. My brain is dancing around the idea that I made a mistake in getting one so big. I’m playing Pokemon Black and later I’ll play Black 2. That’s all I ever do with my Gameboy as that’s why I get them. Pokemon is, as it’s ever been, a game about collecting creatures and putting them to battle. Pokemon is classically a kids game, but there are complicated breeding aspects that I can’t see making sense to a six-year old. I’m a collector at heart and Pokemon is a nearly perfect fit.

I’m going to be looking into Machinima and what they offer to YouTube broadcasters. See if I could make something out of recording playthroughs. If that were the case, you’d likely see more writing and more games.

2012, you were awesome. You’ll see more of me but for the time I’m waiting for Star Command, Wasteland 2 and Planetary Annihilation.

Free Tibet was a cargo ship heading for Hong Kong out of Seattle. Dr Strange, Shark and Mayhem Molly had agreed to intercept this ship, free it of some pirates that had crawled aboard and dispose of some sensitive cargo while they were at it.

Getting there was easy, apparently 2072 boating technology isn’t outside the realm of ‘push buttons until it works’. Molly had the motor running as Shark was halfway through instructing her in ignition unlock process. Two hours later they were trawling leisurely towards the ship, hoping to avoid detection when the sensors aboard the Free Tibet detected them. As a largely automated vessel, the smart agent running the systems greeted an approaching vessel on a collision course the only way it knew how. Fog Horn >> Full Volume

Their stealthy approach shattered, the team boarded to discover a ghostship. Such is the nature of late 21st century boating. Not even a skeleton crew to greet them. Eerily quiet, they stole to the bridge where some elves and a surfer were partying.

Cool as ice and without a care in the world Molly sauntered into the room with a curt but polite “sup” and used the intel given by Johnson to find the container they were looking for.

A cursory examination on the transportability of the cargo resulted in a return trip to the bridge. As they approached the entry hatch on the main deck the surfer of prior note dove overboard apparently having overstayed his welcome as Knight Errant announced their intention to investigate the vessel.

The ensuing fight was over before it began and our triumphant team cleared the cargo, jumped ship and made for Hong Kong for their payout.